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Title: Saltblood
Author: Francesca de Tores
Pages: 328 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release Date: 25th April 2024
Blurb from Goodreads:
In a rented room outside Plymouth in 1685, a daughter is born as her
half-brother is dying. Her mother makes a decision: Mary will become
Mark, and Ma will continue to collect his inheritance money.
Mary's
dual existence will take her to a grand house where she'll serve a
French mistress; to the navy where she'll learn who to trust, and how
to navigate by the stars; to the army and the battlegrounds of
Flanders, following her one true friend; and finding love among the
bloodshed and mud. But none of this will stop her yearning for the
sea.
Drawn back to the water, Mary must reinvent herself
yet again, for a woman aboard a ship is a dangerous thing. This time
Mary will become something more dangerous than a woman. She will
become a pirate.
Breathing life into the Golden Age of
Piracy, Saltblood is a wild adventure, a treasure trove, weaving an
intoxicating tale of gender and survival, passion and loss, journeys
and transformation, through the story of Mary Read, one of history's
most remarkable figures.
Goodreads | Storygraph | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Bookshop
My Review:
*I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury*
When Mary's older half-brother Mark dies, their mother decides that in order to still receive Mark's inheritance money, Mary will pretend to be Mark.
As Mark, Mary finds work in a house as a servant, then she joins the navy and falls in love with the sea. For the rest of her life, Mary finds herself always drawn to the sea no matter where she is, and she ultimately becomes a pirate.
I had never heard of Mary Read the pirate before, so I was intrigued to read this book.
Mary was an interesting protagonist. I'm not sure how accurate this novel was to her life, but I liked that Mary found her home on the sea. There were a few side characters that I liked and I enjoyed the interactions Mary had with them.
The setting of the 1600s-1700s was interesting, especially as I don't know much about piracy or the wars at the time.
The novel is told from Mary's perspective as she tells her life story, which was interesting and enjoyable. However, because of this there was often a lot more telling rather than showing, which made it harder to feel immersed in the story. This also meant that, towards the end, I felt that the book was too long, and could maybe have been a bit shorter. Yet, I did enjoy finding out about the historical figure Mary Read, and I would like to read more about her.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read.
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